Boy shot while sleeping in East Oakland home

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September 20, 2012 7:09:59 PM PDT

by Nick Smith

OAKLAND, Calif. --

A child's bed is supposed to be one of the places they feel safe, but on Thursday it was anything but for a sleeping boy in East Oakland. Police are investigating an early morning shooting that left 11-year-old Luis Hernandez seriously injured when bullets riddled his family's home and sent him to the hospital.

Luis is at Children's Hospital Oakland, where his family says he'll need surgery. He was sleeping when his home was sprayed with bullets, one of which struck him in the torso, sending the 11-year old and his family into a state of panic.

Francisco Duenas showed ABC7 News the more than 15 holes left by the bullets that pierced the walls of his home. One of those bullets hit his little brother Luis, "Blood was all over his body, I saw him crying like a lot, like never before. He didn't know what to do."

The 11-year old was rushed to the hospital. Duenas says the bullet that hit Luis passed through his lung and lodged in his liver, noting, "He gonna have the bullets for like the whole life."

Luis was sleeping on the bottom mattress of a bunk bed. Duenas says his brother was just one of eight people who were home at the time of the shooting. Bullet holes lodged in the headboard and wall, narrowly missing other family members.

While Duenas is combing his home for bullet casings, police are searching for those who fired at the home, "It's about removing weapons from the street, taking them out of the hands of criminals," Oakland Police Department spokesperson Johnna Watson said. Police say the small home at 221 Makin Road in East Oakland was targeted, though they are not saying why they believe that, "This is exactly what our chief was talking about," Watson said. "It's reducing gun-violence and identifying problems before we have our victims."

The shooting comes on the heels of a big announcement made by city leaders just one day before, in which they welcomed the 166th recruit academy, displayed the mug shots of men they suspect in a string of violent street robberies, and touted their efforts to remove more than 560 firearms off of the street.

But all of that means very little to Luis' family, the most recent victims of gun violence in Oakland, "Like, come on man, it's like, innocent people living in the neighborhood," Duenas said. "Little kids, babies, you never know which bullet headed to one of them."

According to the family, Luis is awake and in good spirits. Police are actively hunting for the gunman or gunmen. They are asking that anyone with information contact the Oakland Police Department.